The subject of true and false prophesying has been raised recently. See @derekradney especially. It’s important because as @PLeithart notes in his fine commentary on 1&2 Kings, Israel’s history is not so much political as it is prophetic.
One example - Ahab. Not only does he despise & reject the three prophets God mercifully sends him, but he embraces the hundreds who falsely prophesy in God’s name. That latter fact is the issue. It’s not that the false prophets are invoking Baal but YHWH.
Ahab’s prophets are false for numerous reasons but let me cite just one. They aimed to reinforce an unholy alliance between Judah’s future king and Ahab’s daughter Athaliah, a disaster that resulted in the attempted destruction of the Messianic hope.
Prophetically backing unholy alliances - defending the union of what God has separated - nearly led to the disastrous destruction of Judah. They are false not simply because of false predictions but because of errant theology.
I’m going to put this as plainly as I can. The Church today is disturbed, divided, and misled because of false prophets. They aren’t false in an obvious sense (or only in a narrow ‘charismatic’ sense) because they operate within otherwise orthodox settings & use orthodox terms.
These false prophets long for an unholy alliance. They support in the name of of the Lord a union of human government & church mission. Both church & state are gifts from God but they’re to be separated & distinguished. Improper alignments of these two entities...
... always leads to false prophets supporting that union (and I see it in Court Evangelicals), to the scattering of God’s flock on the hills, and the endangerment of the Gospel’s progress in the world. The false religious leaders who’ve pandered to power & propped up evil...
...bear responsibility for the deception of the flock, the supplanting of hope in Christ with hope in a political savior, and the confusion of Christ’s Kingdom with the government of the United States. There are far too many to name but you know who they are.
You love this country best not by trying to turn it into a conservative theocracy but by preserving intact the robust distinctions between church & state, by praying for those in authority, and always looking to share Christ with all. The USA is not Israel. The Church however...
...must learn by Israel’s example. The Church needs to get out of the politics business - though individual Christians should seek to serve across all party lines - and get back on mission of bringing good news to the world. That’s prophetic!
Finally, I’m not invoking @derekradney or @PLeithart here to suggest they’d agree with what I’ve written but rather to thank them for their excellent work. I am their debtor.
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